Gavin McLean: Captain's Log: New Zealand's Maritime History

By MARGIE THOMSON

For the past 1000 years or so innovation, prosperity, conflict, challenge and change have crashed relentlessly against New Zealand's coasts.

"They are our front door," writes maritime historian McLean, who is somehow able to be thoughtful and learned while still exuding the charming enthusiasm of one who truly loves his subject.

Research has killed the myth of the Polynesian Great Fleet but many fleets have surged past since - fleets of crusading colonists, fleets of Home boats, the American Great White Fleet, the container and bulk carrier fleets of the 1970s and the Bolly-swilling America's Cup flotillas. All have left their mark.

These, and an underlying acknowledgment of New Zealanders' affinity for their coastline and sea, are McLean's subjects here, each dealt with in unfailingly lively style, with plenty of photos and other illustrations.

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